OUCH!!!

[Roboframer]

I missed a semi rigid tab today, i.e. didn't press it flat before putting the tape over it, then, when I came to press/smooth the tape down, at my usual speed - I gashed my finger. You can see blood to the right of the tab. It's a nasty cut, index finger, about 20mm long. Steri strips are doing OK though.

[Moglet]

Owwww!

Kiss better!

[Roboframer]

Just remembered, not a case of not pressing the tabs down 1st time, but a case of removing the backing after sealing once - flumb problems and missing one I'd bent up to remove the board.

The tabs don't stick up that much when fired in.

I've done this before but not this badly

[WelshFramer]

I've done this before but not this badly

I'm thinking you won't be doing it again for a while.

[markw]

They are amazingly sharp when you encounter one in the wrong place - bit like paper cuts, they really hurt. Did manage to fire a tab into my thumb - that hurt a bit as well.

I had a plague of flies in my workshop last week - I think something died in the very large chimney at the end of the workshop - nasty, but my aim on the flexi tab gun has become quite good - can kill a fly at about a metre. My wife has commented that my behaviour is very childish and that I will hurt someone with a flying (very sharp) flexi tab.

[Moglet]

Boys and their toys.... Manual or air-operated, Mark?

Very sorry to hear about your thumb incident, Mark. Nearest I've come to that was firing a staple into one of my thumbs from a manual gun. That wasn't nice, but would pale into insignificance compared to the pain you must have experienced.

[framejunkie]

While the subject is on stapler incidents, I'll share a cautionary tale. I suppose the title should be 'what not to do'.

This is not for the faint-hearted, so if you don't like the gorier stories, i suggest you stop reading now

When i moved into my current workspace i thought i'd devote some time(in the end about 2 weeks!) to making a seriously proper framing bench on wheels, as space is limited. This thing is a beast - about 110kg unladen, and it currently has about 150kg of tools, mountboard, and sundry stuff in it. Anyway when i finished it the final touch was to stretch a piece of soft cloth over the counter(if you ever need to make a really flat worktop i can recommend 2 sheets of 18mm MDF glued and screwed together). I was crouched down on my haunches stapling this cloth on the underside in time-honoured gallery-wrap style, putting the wide-crown pneumatic stapler on the floor between shots. I grabbed the gun without looking, fumbled it, and it landed in my lap just as i got a hand back on it, sadly hitting the trigger as i did so. The result was that i stapled my jeans to my upper inner left thigh(using a 10mm staple, with both prongs going right in!) I stayed calm, and thought 'this is gonna bleed when i take it out' so prepared as best i could by getting suitable cloth to hand and undoing my trousers before i pulled the staple out. Even so i must have hit an artery, as in the second and a half between getting the thing out and getting a cloth on it, it just gushed vivid red. Stopped bleeding externally surprisingly quickly, but bled a lot under the skin. After a couple of days i had a bruise which went from the wound(about 3" from my groin) all the way to the knee. The wound itself healed pretty quick(only a couple of tiny holes, after all), but did look like i'd been bitten by a snake. I'm just glad that it wasn't 3 inches up and to the right - that could have been REALLY bad...

I have 5 pneumatic guns - this is the only one without a safety catch.

PS - Mark, i admire your sense of sport with the fly situation, but are you shooting them airborne or stationary? Personally i swear by my trusty badminton racquet - but watch out what direction you're sending fly innards flying in - can play havoc with delicate surfaces, eg artwork; mountboard etc

Any other horror stories out there? Is there a framer out there who really took the end off their finger on a Morso? Every framer i ever met knew someone who had done it but i never actually met the framer who did...

[markw]

Flys always stationary - well out of the range of artwork. I am now going to get counselling having read your "horror story".

[foxyframer]

One moments lack of attention, taking silly short-cuts or being just plain careless - 4 hours waiting in A&E; no joke. Our workshops are no place for the unwary: Morso's, four foot guillotines, knives, guns and blades - never take your own safety for granted.

I,ve had the usual glass cuts and run in with blades, but thankfully not with the big stuff. Doesn't bare thinking about.

Fly-paper up in the workshop, hangin' off a fluorecent tube. Amazin' how the big buzzy ones fly round the bloody thing. Plastic swatter on stand-by.

Foxy

[summer-data]

Fly-paper up in the workshop, hangin' off a fluorecent tube. Amazin' how the big buzzy ones fly round the bloody thing

I went for the un-planet-friendly fly spray in a desperate bid to rid the shop of a nasty big blue bottle. I chased the thing around for an hour, finally managing to catch it in the spray. Unfortunately i didn't realise that fly spray carries electrically charged particles and fly was right in front of the fire alarm. Bells started ringing and the building had to be evacuated. I should now tell you that our shop is in an upstairs shopping mall which also incorporates a cafe, hairdressers and several other shops. As you can imagine i wasn't too quick to go over and tell the evacuated little old ladies with perm rollers in whose fault it was they were stood outside oops

[mlondon]

I'm happy to say i've never had any major stapling or morso injuries, i have however on several occasions lost a few mm's of various fingers due to lack of concentration...... schoolboy error!